It seems like I’ve seen a lot of unsatisfactory movies this year. I used to be ALOT more discerning about whether or not I really wanted to see a movie before I rented it, because it costs so much to rent (plus, every time Josh and I rent something we forget to take it back and end up paying 2 or 3 times as much as we were supposed to). But now that we have NetFlix and all the free services online that let you stream movies and tv shows, I’m a little more inclined to watch some things I would never have paid money for. So I made a list of a few movies that I think would be a waste of your time to see, to save you some time, money and aggravation. Alot of these are movies you have probably seen already (poor you). Here goes:(in no particular order)

Vantage Point– I typically don’t like the action movie genre because they rarely have thoroughly developed plot lines or developed characters. You could watch this whole movie and never feel a single emotion or intrigue. The story did not allow you to attach yourself to any particular character. The plot had a lot of potential but ended up being just a very short and underdeveloped story that could have been awesome (had someone else made the movie!) I was disappointed because it had Matthew Fox in it who plays a character from the TV show Lost that I really love. Oh well, maybe someone will do a really good remake in 10 or 20 years.

The Happening– my second biggest (movie) disappointment of the year. My second favorite movie maker of all time is M. Night Shyamalan. I do not love all of his movies, but the ones that I am not crazy about, I dislike for very different reasons than I dislike The Happening. The acting was bad, there was not enough dialog, no character depth, unneccesarily gory, thin plot, unsatisfactory ending. Seemed like a B-movie to me. I still cannot believe the same man made Signs.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith– I would never have chosen to rent this one but friend of ours likes it and wanted us to watch it, so against my better judgement, we did. Oh my word, talk about a ditzy popcorn movie. It was WAY too long, if it had been about an hour and a half, I don’t think I would have as much hatred for it as I do (it’s 2 hours). They just didn’t know where to stop! I am not a romantic comedy fan anyway (and since it had a lot of action movie earmarks) this one took the cake. I hate movies where the most attractive cast is picked all the way down to the garbage men and maids (I don’t think there was a garbage man or maid in this movie but you catch my drift). The story and the “look” of the entire cast was nauseatingly unrealistic.

Rambo First Blood– I did not know who to cheer for. I need a hero, I guess.

The Terminator– How in the world was this movie a hit? The dialog was very poorly written, I hate movies with purposeful bad lighting, the whole thing was just plain weird.

Raising Arizona- Had some funny moments, but overall a real wast of time. Really dumb is the best way to describe it.

Prince Caspian– My biggest disappointment of the year. I love the book as much as if I had written it myself and I felt like Andrew Adamson spit and stomped on it until in only vaguely resembled the original masterpiece. The spirit of the book as written by Lewis was just not in the movie. At all.

I tried doing this twice yesterday, but I kept getting way too detailed. I guess all I can say, is that Prince Caspian the movie was almost nothing like Prince Caspian the book. Since I LOVE that book, it made me really mad. I can put up with adding/removing a scene or idea here or there but my gosh, man! Not only did they screw up the timeline, they added numerous unnecessary scenes, and worst of all….. they changed Caspian and Peter’s personalities (not to mention that Caspian is supposed to be fair haired boy around Peter’s age, maybe a little younger- not a dark haired 20-something!)!! Sheesh! Ok, I’m done.

No, it’s not a new age. They’ve been messing up good books for the sake of gaining a larger audience for years now.

You’ll remember that part of the reason I started a blog was to give me another “hobby” so that I would not go into deep dark depression over losing my satellite service (that is a severe exaggeration of course!). Anyway, I was kinda looking forward to not being able to have the TV on all day and I would instead listen to more records and podcasts and such. But, alas, just as I was on my way to complete recovery- I found out about all these great websites that let you stream TV shows for free!!! I don’t care about any of the new shows on these sites, but when you tempt me with Perry Mason, Adam-12, The Dick Van Dyke Show and the Hitchcock Hour you have got me hooked! To make matters worse, Josh bought a couple cables that would hook our Macbook up to the TV so it’s just like watching it on TV (he took pictures of the cables so I think he might blog about that later…). So, I’ve decided to limit my “TV time” to 2-3 shows a day, which isn’t too bad since they are mostly all half hour shows minus commercial breaks. I try to always be doing something while they’re on, like laundry or I’ll watch one while I eat lunch.
In case you’re interested, Fancast, ABC, NBC, CBS and Hulu all have similar streaming services. Hulu even has movies, but like with any other type of streaming, depending on what time of day you try to watch, sometimes the show/movie will get hung up alot and it can get pretty aggravating. But for the most part, I watch during the afternoon and there’s rarely any problems during the day.

I just finished watching it. Such a wonderful movie. I know some of you wonder if I ever cry and what the heck could make me do such a girly thing. Well….. Phantom almost always makes me cry. You’ve Got Mail makes me cry. Casablanca makes me cry and so does Anne of Green Gables. *Sigh*

So there you have it. Lyndsay cries. Occasionally. And only when she’s by herself 😉 That’s my exhaustive list, what’s yours?.